Consider the final week of the NHL regular season like you would Week 17 of the NFL season. From a fantasy standpoint, everything should be wrapped up before the final few days of the season. There are too many uncertainties with lineups and injuries. Teams that are headed towards the NHL playoffs may rest some of their stars and other teams may shut down players who are not at 100 percent health. It allows teams to “tank” while getting a look at some of their younger prospects.

Imagine riding Nikita Kucherov or Andrei Vasilevskiy to the fantasy hockey finals – which happen to be played in Week 24 – only to see them rest over the final few days. That may not happen, although it’s almost certainly going to for Vasilevskiy. If you’re an owner and you play until the very end of the season, you’ll need to have guys like Louis Domingue on standby.

This isn’t a debate on how you should run your league, it just means this is my...